IIIIIIIIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH SCHOOL GARDENS IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIM^ 
United States Commissioner of Education 
Favors Children’s Gardens 
Extracts from an address before the American Civic Association 
at Washington, D. C., by Dr. P. P. Claxton, December 4th, 1914 
Commissioner Claxton in addressing the luncheon guests said that it 
was desirable to employ the school pupils in some healthful, useful, pro¬ 
ductive occupation. 
“Home gardening done by the children under the direction of the 
schools seems to offer what is needed.” Dr. Claxton said, “In all the 
manufacturing villages, suburban towns and cities, and smaller towns, 
there is much valuable land in vacant lots, back yards and elsewhere 
which might be used for this purpose. In every school in a community 
of this kind there should be at least one teacher who knows gardening, 
both theoretically and practically. This teacher, who should be employed 
for extra time should teach the elementary sciences during school hours, 
and should out of school hours, direct the home gardening of the children 
between the ages of 6 and 15 years. 
“Vegetables grown should be used first as food for the children and 
their families, then the surplus should be marketed. Through the help 
of the teacher this can be done in a cooperative way. Ten or fifteen cents 
each day from the gardens of two hundred children would amount to 
$20.00 or $30.00. When the surplus is large and cannot be marketed to 
advantage, the teacher should direct the children in canning and preserv¬ 
ing for winter use. The canning and tomato clubs in the Southern States 
have already shown what can be done in this way. 
“It is difficult to estimate all the results of this plan, once it is in 
operation throughout the country. For the children it will mean health, 
strength, joy in work, habits of industry, an understanding of the value 
of money as measured by terms of labor, and such knowledge of the 
phenomena of nature as must be had for the understanding of most of 
their school lessons. They will also learn some of the fundamental prin¬ 
ciples of morality, that every man and woman must make his or her own 
living, must by some kind of labor of hand, head or heart, contribute to 
the common wealth as much as he or she takes from it, must pay in some 
kind of coin for what he or she gets. 
“The economic and sociological results are also worthy of con¬ 
sideration. Experiments already made show that with proper direction 
an average child of the age contemplated, can produce from an eighth of 
an acre of land from fifty to one hundred dollars worth of vegetables. 
A third of the children of the United States could easily produce $300,- 
000,000 in value.” 
Planting the School Garden at Weyburn, Saskatchewan. 
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